Helmut Rippel
Helmut Rippel, 69, of Shawnee, Kansas, passed away, Saturday, November 12, 2011, at his home.
Helmut was born in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to Missouri in 1956. He was with Todd and Sargent in Ames, Iowa, for 23 years before founding Industrial Project Services, Inc. He retired on October 31, 2011.
He is survived by his wife Virginia “Becky” Rippel of the home; a daughter, Annemarie Gremminger and her husband, Robert, of Shawnee, Kansas; five grandchildren, Brendon and Morgan Fisch and Maggie, Lizzie, and Anna Gremminger; two sisters, Ute Rippel, Mesa, Arizona, and Helma Martinez, San Antonio, Texas.
Visitation and Funeral Services
Visitation will be from 6:00-8:00, Tuesday, November 15, 2011, at the Amos Family Chapel of Shawnee. Funeral service will be 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 16, 2011, at the chapel. Burial in Jefferson, Iowa.
Memorial Contributions
The family suggests contributions to Heartland SPCA (Animal Haven), 9800 w. 67th Street, Merriam, Kansas or Kansas City Hospice, 10100 W. 87th Street, Suite 100, Overland Park, Kansas 66212.
Print Obituary & Condolences
Offer Condolence for the family of Helmut Rippel
Messages of Condolence
Please share your thoughts ...
QR Code for this Obituary
Use your Smartphone to scan the QR Code on the right to access this page on your phone.Grief Video Series
Join Grief Expert, Doug Manning in his Journey Through Grief video series.
Watch the Grief Videos here.Would you like to order flowers?
If you would like to order flowers please see the selection available at Russell Florist. Click here to see all of the available floral arrangements.
my brother was a steady rock for the whole family, he will be missed, but his wise spirit will be with us always. love y’all!
Dearest Helmut, we have the sweet memory of visiting with you last week, reminiscing about our lives, spending happy hours together with you and your lovely family. Until we meet again in heaven, we send you all our love. Your sister Ute and all of us here in Arizona.
Dear Becky, Annemarie, Rob, and all the lovely grandchildren,
We have a precious memory of spending happy hours with you and Helmut. Many thanks for your caring attention to your husband, father, and “grandpa.” Love to all of you from Ute and the family here in Arizona.
Dear Anna,
So sorry for your loss of your Grandpa. Now he and Kathleeny are talking about you! Feel the love,and know that someone in Wichita loves you too! Take care.
Rosie& Johnny Duling
God Bless you Helmut as I know you are in Heaven now. I am thankful and blessed to be your friend. Also, we have enjoyed many business projects together over the 40 plus years of knowing one another.
Becky, you and your wonderful family will continue to draw on the beautiful life together as wife, parents, brothers and sisters and spouse’s, and as grandparents. My God Bless all of you.
We have so many fond memories of daily happy hours with our dear neighbors Helmut, Becky and Annemarie from all those years on Jefferson St. in Ames. and vsits since.
.
Anne and Marianne hope to make it to the funeral. Jim can’t travel that far and David is in Florida but ALL of us will be with you in thought.
Marianne, Jim, Anne & David
Dear Annemarie and Family,
My sincerest condolences and wishes for you to always treasure a chest full of fond memories of spending time with Helmut.
Love always,
Linda Schweighofer
Lessons I learned from my dad . . .
1. Take care of your family
2. Treat others with respect and dignity
3. Conduct yourself in such a way as to earn the respect of others
4. Don’t do anything if the only reason you are doing it is to impress someone else
5. No matter how crappy the cards, play the hand you are dealt and play it well
6. Ask questions
7. When it doesn’t seem to add up, you either added wrong or you missed something
8. Measure twice, cut once
9. Relax
10. LIVE your life – use the good china, smell the roses, eat the ice cream, appreciate
The two things I remember most about Helmut were his patience and his sense of humor.
I saw his patience especially when he was helping the boys with their Pinewood Derby cars showing each of them how to make them better. There he was working away in the basement while the boys flitted around, looking at this and that, laughing and cutting up. Helmut would bring them back to the task at hand and engage them time after time. That made me smile!
I smiled even bigger when I remembered his sense of humor. When Helmut found something funny, his eyes would crinkle in the corners as he started to smile, the lights would twinkle in his eyes and from deep inside would come this very hearty laugh! It was GREAT to hear him laugh.
He was an amazing man who did and saw so many things in his life. But doing family was what he did best. You could just tell how much he loved everyone in that circle. He was caring, courageous, kind, ambitious, loving, intelligent and warm. He will definitely be missed dearly!!
My love and prayers go out to everyone in Helmut’s family and his extended circle of friends!
-Jo
Our deepest sympathy. What wonderful memories we have of those 10 years as neighbors on Jefferson St.when all the children were small! When I drive down Jefferson St., all the good times come flooding back. You’ve had the opportunity to live a full and adventuresome life. May those memories comfort you at this dark time. Marianne, Jim, Anne & David Chalstrom
Hello Gremminger/Rippel families,
I am so sorry for your loss. He was an amazing man and left an amazing legacy. God is taking good care of him I am sure. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
Love you all, Anne and John Sorensen, Ty, Trent, Emma and Luke
Becky & Family, We are so sorry for your loss. Our thoughts and prayers are wit h you and your family. John & Kathy Powell
Dear Becky, Annemarie and the rest of Helmut’s family, I am very sorry for you loss, please accept my deepest and most sincere sympathy on your loss of a truly amazing person.
Helmut was one of the most courageous, energetic, kind, gracious, patient and honest man I have ever met. Anyone who had contact with Helmut left a better person on the inside and out. There will never be another person like him.
He valued his family above all else. He was always there for them, whether it was an athletic event, educational event, birthday, vacation, special event or in a time of need and guidance, he was there for his family. He loved and was infinitely devoted to his wife Becky. He and Becky shared and experienced so much together which tells you how much they loved each other. Helmut was the epitome of the family man.
I have many fond memories of Helmut. Many of which were lessons he taught me when I was a young man just out of college who didn’t know much. What is inspirational is to see and hear are those same lessons he taught me, he taught to his grand children.
Annemarie, that list of lessons you posted about your father is spot on! Your father was an incredible man.
Again, please accept my deepest sympathy on the loss of such a loved family member.
Becky, Annemarie and Family,
Words cannot express how deeply sorry we are for your loss. Uncle Helmut was a great man and will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Let peace fill your heart…
My thoughts and prayers go out to you in the loss of a great guy – Memories last a lifetime!!!
Dear Becky, Annemarie and family,
There are times when words are not enough and without a doubt this is such a time. Becky, we recall you and Helmut’s wedding. Then we did not know much about him but as we came to know him we realized what a ‘jewel’ he was to you and your family. You
certainly had a good life together. We also appreciated your kindness to our family. May God’s everlasting love surround each of you now.
Our sympathy and prayers to all,
Bill & Peggy Raymond
Sorry to hear of your loss. May God comfort your hearts and minds during this time of grieving.
Dearest Becky and family,
I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I know it has been a while since you left Ames but we have not forgotten you.
We can always remember the “good ole days” on Jefferson Street as we held block parties and watched our children grow into such fine young adults.
Helmut was a mentor as he worked with Travis on your new home.
Please know that you are in are prayers daily.
Brendon, Morgan, Annemarie, and Becky,
We are so sorry for your loss. By all accounts, Helmut was a wonderful grandfather, father, and husband. The Larigan household is thinking of you during this difficult time.
Our deepest sympathies,
Beth and John
Liebe Becky, liebe Annemarie, liebe Ute, liebe Helma und Familien,
als wir im Frühjahr 2011 das große Vergnügen hatten, Becky und Helmut in Berlin begrüßen zu dürfen, waren wir beeindruckt von der Reiselust und Weltoffenheit der beiden. Und das bei einer gesundheitlichen Situation, die nicht unbedingt den Eindruck von Stabilität erweckte. Niemand, aber wirklich niemand von uns hätte auch nur im Geringsten daran gedacht, dass wir das Jahr 2011 ohne den lieben Helmut unter uns beenden würden. So beeindruckt wir im Frühjahr waren, so konsterniert sind wir nun und das tiefe Gefühl der Trauer und Anteilnahme hat uns ergriffen. Seid stark Ihr Lieben und euch gewiss, dass wir im Herzen und im Geiste bei euch sind in diesen Tagen. Wir gedenken Helmut und nehmen zusammen mit euch Abschied von einem liebgewonnen Menschen.
In Liebe, Trauer und Anteilnahme,
Ewald, Daniel und Max, Berlin
___________________________________________________
Dear Becky, dear Anne Marie, dear Ute, dear Helma and families,
when we had the great pleasure in the spring of 2011, to welcome Becky and Helmut in Berlin, we were quite impressed by the desire to travel and cosmopolitanism of the two. Although their health was in a situation that didn’t necessarily give the impression of stability, no one, but really none of us would even have had the slightest thought that we would have to end 2011 without beloved Helmut. As impressed as we were in the spring, as dismayed we are now and the deep feeling of sorrow and sympathy has taken us. You shall be strong altogether and be certain, that we are in the heart and spirit with you in these days. We will always remember Helmut and bid together with you farewell to a beloved person.
In love, sorrow and sympathy,
Ewald, Daniel and Max, Berlin
We all feel such sadness for the loss of Helmut and sympathy for all of the family. Be sure to know our thoughts are with you.
Marv, Nedra, Dick & Evelyn
Dear Becky, Annemarie and family , Ute, Helma and family,
unforgettable is Helmut for me, my only cousin in the world, who I, living far away from me, met once in the USA, in 1970 and later a couple of times in Giengen, Germany.
Spending Christmas Eve in 2007 with him and his big family together with my big family, after having visited my mum Käthy in an old people´s home before, singing German christmas songs under the christmas tree and having fun, was an as deep experience as the visit of Becky and Helmut in Giengen on May 5th and 6th 2011. Helmut´s German was still perfect and we we were talking a lot , especially abourt the Camino to Santiago de Campostela in Spain, walking along a miniature of it in Giengen.
We will never meet again, but Helmut will stay in our rememberance as a well balanced person, full of ideas and enthusiasm, loving his family.
Rubens and I embrace you and feel deep sorrow with you.
THE MOST IMPORTANT HOUR ALWAYS IS THE PRESENT,
THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IS THE ONE WHO IS JUST STANDING IN FRONT OF YOU,
AND THE MOST NECCESSARY DEED ALWAYS IS LOVE.
Helmut is in our prayers.
Take care,
Dorothea, Rubens and family in Germany and Mexico
Becky,
I am so sorry for your loss. As you know, I worked for ten years with Helmut and always enjoyed our interactions. He was a kind, considerate person. I remember, at the first company party, he was the first to come up to meet my husband.
My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family. God bless!
Sincerely, Sarah Terrones
Becky,
I was so sorry to hear about Helmut’s death from Judy Jenison. I worked with Helmut at Todd & Sargeant and it was so good to see you both when Art & Judy had their anniversary party. You both looked so good so this was naturally a shock for me. You and your family are in my prayers.
Claudia Pauk
Becky and family,
I wish to extend my sincere sympathy in your loss of your husband, Helmut. I didn’t know Helmut but he sounds like a very fine individual. Becky, you and I had fun in a ladies canasta club for a few years.
May your memories provide some comfort at this difficult time.
Becky and Anne Marie,
What a shock it was to hear about Helmut.
Our hearts hurt for you and with you.
Know that we never say good-by to our loved ones, you will meet again.
Love, Dave and Sherry Stanbrough
So sorry to hear of Helmut’s passing.
We were in the same class in High School, class of 1960.
He was for a time also a neighbor on a farm near LaPlata, MO during that time.
His sence of humor was next to none and always fun to be around.
We will be thinking of this loss to his family.
J Mason